Summary

Many journalists, at some point in their careers, have had an “Ah-hah!” moment -- a sudden realization about the impact of their work or the work of their colleagues. Many of the journalists interviewed for the WNN report provided a single anecdote about an event that helped them understand and appreciate the power and purpose of journalism. We are sharing those epiphanies here.

Scott Wasser was a young reporter at the Stuttgart Daily Leader in Stuttgart, Ark., when he found himself up to his ankles in alligators (or at least feared that could be the case), and the power of the press became clear to him.

Felice Belman was a young reporter at the Concord Monitor when she tried to avoid stirring the grief surrounding a drowning death and realized she had missed an opportunity to tell a fuller story the community needed to hear.

David Farré’s epiphany came when he was a novice news photographer at The Daily Targum, his college newspaper at Rutgers, after a reporter commented on one of his pictures and everything came into focus.

Michael Townsend sees his editor’s job as that of a “conveyer belt,” conveying key information to his community. It’s his job, he says, to make sure the information is shared on a “level playing field for all.”

Bob Gorman tells how one day, covering the courts for a twice-weekly newspaper in South Carolina, a case of food stamp fraud led to a major investigation, and it became “a day when journalism mattered.”